On Thanksgiving night, my family and I were ending our day with a family movie. The weeks before were busy with setting up for our huge outdoor drive-thru event called Light of the World, and I was finally looking forward to relaxing for a bit. My phone started buzzing, and as I looked down I saw a message that sank my heart. The 60mph winds had torn down much of what we spent weeks building for Light of the World. I thought it was a joke, but I got up and said, “Family, I need to go.” They, of course, were concerned and asked a million questions. I held up my phone and showed them the photos. As I was driving to the Lake Forest campus, many thoughts raced through my mind. “Why God?” “What’s going on?” “Really, on Thanksgiving?” “All the work we have done. Why would this happen now?” Several of us met to clean up as the winds were still howling around us and frustration started to creep in. At this moment, God nearly hit me over the side of the head as a small part of a structure flew by me. I heard God say, “Wake up. Don’t you know I am the ruler of the winds? I am in control and bigger than all of this!” The story of Jesus sleeping in the boat as the storm was going on around Him came to my mind.
Mark 14:39
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
My mind quickly switched to a series of verses I had been sending to the production team to prepare for the holidays. I was inspired to do this after our pastor mentioned that the Bible talks about fear over 300 times. One verse I found was this:
Isaiah 41:13
For I am the Lord your God, Who holds your right hand, who says to you, “Do not fear, I will help you.”
I felt convicted as the winds started to blow harder. God had been talking to me every day up to this point about fear. But the moment came where fear seemed reasonable, and I totally forgot what God had taught me. God is bigger, and He will overcome. What’s a little wind to His name? This is something small in His eyes, and we will rebuild. And that is exactly what we did. For the next three days, we rallied together and built it back up. Our God is bigger than 60mph winds, and we proved it. SOMETIMES he puts His answers right in front of us. SOMETIMES He does it more than once. SOMETIMES we even share His answers with others but don’t apply them to ourselves. Every time He is holding our right hand and waiting for us to call His name, and He will answer, “Do not fear, I will help you.” EVERY TIME.
Dennis Choy is Director of Production at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. ■
